Victims' advocate backs Colorado bill to collect more DNA

LONGMONT -- Renee Dulany-Hughes says all bets are off when someone is convicted of a crime.

The former Longmont woman supports a bill winding its way through the Colorado Legislature that would expand the required collection of DNA samples from those convicted of felonies and sexual assault-related misdemeanors to everyone convicted of first-degree misdemeanors.

"I don't see why anyone would have any problem providing their DNA if they have done nothing," she said.

DNA was the key in Dulany-Hughes' case. She is an outspoken advocate for sexual assault victims. She was bound and raped at knifepoint in her bedroom in 1996. She immediately called police and even suggested that the assailant who broke into the apartment sounded like her neighbor. However, the case went cold for a decade until police submitted DNA evidence from her case for comparison in a state database expanded by laws requiring DNA submission from convicted felons and turned up a match -- Rudy Gaytan, her former neighbor.

Gaytan's DNA also matched samples from the 1993 murder of Tammera Tatum, whose husband was for 17 years the primary suspect.

Gaytan was convicted in both cases and sentenced to 72 years in prison.

Dulany-Hughes believes that House Bill 1251, which cleared a House vote and is now assigned to the Senate's finance committee, could mean closure for victims whose suspects have not been identified. She added that for some, it could even serve to prevent crimes from happening.

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"At this point, I think everyone knows that no matter what you do, you tend to leave DNA," she said.

She also believes that those who commit misdemeanors may escalate to felonies.

"I am in love with this bill, should it pass without being thoroughly chopped up," she said.

The Colorado ACLU, though, has issues with it.

Denise Maes, public policy director for the organization, said the bill is over-broad. While DNA would ostensibly be used for identification now, it includes a world of information about people that hasn't even been uncovered yet, she said.

"The privacy effects are far more staggering," she said.

She believes the bill is a slippery slope.

"I have said facetiously, 'Why don't you just chip us at birth?'" she said.

Maes also said the bill doesn't account for proper uses of the DNA samples and could allow for untold abuses.

"We don't know what tomorrow's technology will bring us as far as DNA profiling."

In Colorado, 178 offenses are labeled as Class 1 misdemeanors. They include assault, forgery, trade-secret theft, indecent exposure, trespassing and operating a recording device in a motion picture theater without consent.

Should a person's misdemeanor conviction be overturned, the law would allow that person to appeal to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to have the DNA record expunged. The CBI would do so, unless the sample resulted in a database match.

Maes said she does see the uses for solving crimes and doubts that lawmakers will take much political risk in opposing a bill on privacy grounds that crime victims support.

"The politics of voting against it are troubling for lawmakers," she said.

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